The Crazed Spruce

I see four moments, myself. Kara pulling the floor out from under the Anti-Monitor, her pounding away at him screaming “It’s over!”, the actual killing blow, and the final panel. And Wildfire’s “We had a casualty” comes close to being a fifth.

JoeMac

Callum

I’m going with either the last panel or the one where she’s blasted, not sure(and both also have good mini-panels before them of Supes crying and ‘Oh no’, respectively)….Hmm… Ok I think the last last panel is the most iconic, in part because of the event and in part because of the cover of this issue, but I think er actual death scene is the cool moment. Like Scott MacIver said previously: ‘Jaw dropping’. Which is impressive because you know it’s coming.

Lt. Clutch

The final panel is the only one that made an impact on me. But of course, Kara eventually got better.

Dr. Light’s repentance was also supposed to be a big deal here, but she screws it up by distracting Kara. I’ve never cared at all for Light because of this. In fact, most of the older characters killed here returned eventually, while the new ones (Dr. Light, Harbinger, Lady Quark, and that oh-so-whiny Pariah) never did much in the DCU after the Crisis was over. None of them ever became breakthrough stars the likes of Kara or Barry Allen.

It was all a waste.

harry

Which makes me ask …If SMan was getting whupped, and Sgirl is not as strong, HOW was she able to do so much damage to the A-M…the series was terrific…I suppose you’ll have Barry Allen’s (now pseudo) death recorded as well….

HammerHeart

“If SMan was getting whupped, and Sgirl is not as strong, HOW was she able to do so much damage to the A-M…”

Because Writer’s Fiat, that’s how. Crisis on Infinite Earths had great artwork, but the plot and script were absolutely awful. Nothing made sense, characters did stuff for no reason whatsoever, and each antagonist was just tough enough to seem dangerous until it was time for some hero to look good (the Anti-Monitor and his shadow creatures were unstoppable on one page, and vulnerable to mere punches on the other).

Mike Blake

The lesson learned by Dr. Light from Supergirl turns out to be ultimately worthless, since after COIE everybody forgot she ever existed, Light included.

Speaking of which, Brian, you should include as a cool moment the great followup Alan Brennert did later, “Should Auld Acquaintance Be Forgot” in the second Christmas with the Super-Heroes special in 1989. Her speech to Deadman was moving.

Is it a Comic Book Legend the parties involved got in trouble for running that story?

For me, it is the “You are crying. You taught me to be brave and I was.”

It really pays off the Silver Age history of the characters. Supergirl was always working to please Superman. Trying to show him that she was ready to meet the world. She had to earn her way into the community of superheroes. In the end, she was the bravest of them all. That is a moment that only works for a character with 25 years of very consistent characterization before every new creative team could radically alter the direction of any given franchise at will.

In other words, it is a moment that is totally impossible now. There have been too many “Death of …” stories. The graveyard got so full that creators are forced to bring people back. Even Barry Allen and Bucky have returned. What is amazing is that this sequence still gets me.

Maybe, it is because to this day, that Supergirl is still gone and it is really beyond the abilities of the modern generation of creators to bring her back.

Denmad

“If SMan was getting whupped, and Sgirl is not as strong, HOW was she able to do so much damage to the A-M…”

Superman was sucker punched/beamed, and the Anti-Monitor didn’t give him any space to breathe after the first strike. Supergirl also started with a surprise attack and pummeling, so I don’t think it’s that much of a stretch or bad writing. After all, the A-M killed her with an attack that looks just like the first attack he hits Superman with.

Zor-El of Argo

Also, the power difference between Kal and Kara is the same as it would have been on Krypton. Strictly gender-based. Remember, in the Silver-Age Kryptonians went directly to full power under a yellow sun and immediately to mere-mortal under a red sun, so Kal’s longer stay on Earth would have had no impact.

American Hawkman

I think the answer’s pretty clear as to why Supergirl was able to do so much more damage to the Anti-Monitor. Unlike Clark, she decided that he wasn’t worth living and went at it with intent to kill. (You don’t deserve to live!”, as she starts in on him.) That’s what made it all so much worse for me when I first read this… Superman would then have to live the rest of his life knowing that his holding back cost him a chance to end this madness before Kara died. I could EASILY see that breaking him completely, if it weren’t for her final words showing him why she made her sacrifice willingly, and that it was because of everything he stands for that she was who she was. Powerful stuff.

nikki

wwk5d, the Brainiac 5 stuff following this is so much more emotional than the Superman stuff. When he talks about life and death and how he just wants to go ‘away’ (which I take to mean die) but he’s too scared is so powerful. One of my most awesome moments for sure. Shakespearean almost.

Mike Hodder

Jon Morse

The truly awful thing about the whole Dr. Light sequence here is that Supergirl’s disappearance from continuity made the whole thing meaningless. Instead of a new hero who in two respects had the weight of Supergirl’s legacy on her shoulders (she really learned what it was to be a hero from Kara, then she’d have to deal with the guilt of essentially getting Kara killed), we had… nothing. Nothing at all.

Of course, in the ham-handed way that things got handled in the 90s, we probably would have gotten real sick of her moaning about it in short order, but still… there was clearly a lot of thought put into giving Kimiyo a backstory with some pull here, and it just got tossed in the garbage, unused.

Steve

This still chokes me up and anyone who thinks it’s overwritten should go now and read Barry Allen’s death, a tepid essay with some pictures. For me, it has to be ‘But we…we had a casualty.’ That’s when I choked up reading the sequence here, I choked up again reading someone quoting it in the comments, and just choked up again writing this!